Spain: Pay-TV subs dip below 4m
July 23, 2013
From David Del Valle in Madrid
The Spanish pay-TV market is in freefall in terms of subscribers. In the first quarter of the year, pay-TV subscribers dropped below the 4 million for the first time since 2009 to 3,926,844.
A report from the CMT, the Telecommunications Market Commission, reveals that the fall in the number of pay-TV subscribers is intensified over recent months with a drop of over 150,000 clients in comparison with the previous quarter. In 12 months, the pay-TV business has lost almost 450,000 subscribers – in March 2012 it had 4,369,849.
Telefonica-controlled DTH platform Canal+ is the market leader with 1,691,281 subscribers, down 4.5 per cent.
Spain’s largest cable company Ono is second with 853,750 pay-TV subscribers, down 6.8 per cent.
Telefónica, with its IPTV service Movistar TV, is next with 656,499, down 18.9 per cent, whereas pay DTT channel Gol TV suffers most with a 29 per cent fall to 260,098 subscribers.
In terms of revenues, the pay-TV market amounted to €440.98 million in the first quarter, slightly down from the €444.15 million three months earlier but higher than the €433.43 million in Q1 2012.
Canal + is also the market leader in terms of revenues with €300 million in the first quarter, up 19.5 per cent. Telefonica’s IPTV service is second with €60.43 million, down 1.77 per cent, with ONO third with €38.46 million, down 27 per cent.